Theater of violence: Kilele and the possibility of grief

Abstract

This article treats the mechanisms by which theatrical works can be understood as individual and social symbolic reparations for traumatic events carried out in socially violent contexts. In the first section, we establish parameters and concepts related to the sociology, psychology, and politics of victims. The second part is a case study of Kilele, a Colombian theatrical work about the tragedy that occurred in the remote Colombian town of Bojayá. Here, in 2002, an exploding bomb killed seventy-nine inhabitants during combat between guerrillas and paramilitary troops.